_Community effort is needed to make better conditions for
all, in streets and public places, for water and milk supply,
hospitals, markets, housing problems, etc. Restraint for sake
of neighbors._
Quite slowly but surely, the idea is dawning on the social
horizon that the persistence of conditions prejudicial to
human prosperity is discreditable to a civilized community,
and that economics if not ethics calls for their control.
_Alice Ravenhill._
It is the new view that disease must be understood and
overcome; that hospitals, dispensaries, surgical and medical
treatment, nursing and preventive measures must be developed
and dovetailed into a general social scheme for the
elimination of preventable diseases and a very substantial
reduction in the prevalence of such diseases as cannot as
yet be classed as preventable.
_Edward Devine, Social Forces._
Nature endows the vast majority of mankind with a birthright
of normal physical efficiency. It is the duty of those who
aspire to be known as social workers each to do his share in
confirming his fellow beings in this possession.
_Dr. H. M. Eichholz, Inspector of Schools. Paper before Conference
of Women Workers, London, 1904._
We know now that if we do the things we ought to do, we can
prevent sickness. We have reached a point where it is
recognized that it is the duty of the community or state to
effectually protect itself against the ignorant, the
selfish, the filthy, and the diseased. We believe now that
we must have proper sewage disposal, pure water, decent
tenements, clean streets, good-sized playgrounds,
supervision of factories, protection of child labor, and
pure food.
_Eugene H. Porter, Report, 1909, New York State Department
of Health._
Next after himself, man owes it to his neighbor to be well,
and to avoid disease in order that he may impose no burden
upon that neighbor.
_Dr. William T. Sedgwick, The Call to Public Health._